The Amount Of Honesty

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Yesterday, my husband found $600 at his job site. The amount is a guess. I assume it was more -four hundred dollar bills, fifty and twenties, a few tens, and no telling what was in the envelope.

“I gave it to Butch” who happens to be the supervisor on this job.

Right now they are emptying out desks that have been left behind when COVID hit. A very large office building of a very well-known insurance company is emptying all cubicles and offices. New modular furniture systems and hard wall offices will soon be configured and installed to be ready for the returning work crew.

My husband and three others work on an almost empty floor. Nobody has sat on these desks since the spring of 2020 when we all were ordered to stay home for a little bit.

Every night my husband comes home and brings me office stuff that they have been ordered to throw away. The time when we were houseless (homeless) has left marks on my soul, certain behaviors I detect today I developed after we got back on our feet. My husband has scars as well. He cannot throw things away.

When you have almost nothing, you cherish everything. Letting go and throwing slightly used items and fully functioning things away is something my husband can not bare.

We have made a deal. After he is permitted to ‘rescue’ another wireless keyboard or another expensive surge protector from the dumpster he brings it home and I am the one who decided if we keep it or donate it.

I just spent months last year decluttering the Japanese way, I will not allow (and I type it with a smile on my face because I know how it might make me look) to have my house cluttered again. We had too much we didn’t need. Now everything in our house has a home, and what we have is either useful or brings joy to us -which was also determined by me, the queen of our castle.

I am typing this on a brand-new wireless keyboard, which was supposed to be thrown in a dumpster this week. Why don’t they donate it you wonder? We have wondered the same.

They don’t donate because it would require trucks and truck drivers to pick up and deliver. It would require manpower to load and unload, fuel, and insurance to cover all possible liabilities -nobody wants to mess with it.

A small cash box with money had been left behind. Whose is it?

For my husband, it didn’t matter. He broke into the cash box because he wants to make sure nothing valuable or personal is thrown out by accident and when he saw the cash, he turned it in. Knowing him I would say he opens them because he is nosy -and he would agree.

“For a split second I thought about keeping it,” he told me, “but how would I sleep at night?”

When he told me I had mixed feelings.

$600, I wondered what I would have done.

We have both been working so hard to make ends meet. The last four years were not easy on him or me. My husband’s work-related injury in December 2018, his heart surgery in 2019, and his shoulder replacement surgery (the worker’s compensation we had to fight so hard for) right before COVID, it all was a lot to overcome. He is on light duty for 1588 days. We have lost over $40,000 because of an injury that was caused by an oil-water spill someone left unattended.

I just overbooked and overworked myself for months to make a new commercial sewing machine happen. $600 extra would have been something like a blessing.

Would it have been a gift?

I want to believe I would have turned the money in as well. After all, I give all my customers the findings back and you won’t believe what I find hidden inside furniture. Silver utensils, money, toys, lighters, letters, credit cards, keys, and of course jewelry.

I decided a long time ago that honesty doesn’t have a price tag.

I am so proud of my husband. He is an honest man, always has been, and whatever happened to us in the past or whatever we might have to face in the future, knowing this makes me very proud.

The picture of the money and the cash box was taken as proof of what had been found.

A close buy security guard had been called, and after giving his badge and name, he now has the cash box and its content and hopefully, it will find its rightful owner. I assume it belongs to the company.

I am sharing this because last week I decided to continue my “Losing it All” series here on my blog. I will continue writing about our time in Memphis after we had been houseless/homeless for half a year and honesty (and/or stupidity) played a big part in our life back then.

I will try to turn “Losing it All” into a book. It’s now #13 on my new updated bucket list.

My husband is a rich man, he has integrity, character, values, and morals. I guess that makes me a rich woman.

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